Justice Michael Kirby to marry partner on their 50th anniversary
THEY met at a time when being gay was illegal in NSW, and as he climbed to the highest judicial office in land, Michael Kirby openly declared his love for partner Johan van Vloten. Now Mr Kirby has confirmed they will marry on their 50th anniversary.
NSW
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FORMER High Court judge Michael Kirby has confirmed he will marry his longtime partner Johan van Vloten — and they’ve set a significant date.
Kirby was taking questions from law students at Bond University on the Gold Coast this week when he revealed the pair would tie the knot on the 50th anniversary of their first meeting on February 11, 2019.
The announcement came after a student posed the question: what moment of his life would Kirby choose to relive?
The esteemed human rights campaigner’s thoughts turned to van Vloten and a Sydney hotel in 1969.
“I met my partner Johan in what was then one of the very few gay bars in Sydney — the Rex Hotel. I never went to hotels. I’m not a big drinker,” Kirby said.
“But I was like Princess Mary. She went into the Slip Inn in Sydney and picked up the Crown Prince of Denmark. I went into my hotel and picked up my partner Johan and we’re still together.
“That was a very memorable encounter.”
Fast forward decades and Australia had voted to legalise same-sex marriage.
But even then, Kirby and van Vloten were undecided if the time was right.
“Because of the change in the Marriage Act 1961 Commonwealth — most unexpectedly — my partner Johan and I had to decide whether to get married,” Kirby said.
“We were not all that enthusiastic. Not because we didn’t support the right of citizens to get married if they wished to, and not to be disqualified if they were LGBT.
But because we’ve been together now for 49 years and eight months. And so it just seemed a little artificial. It seemed a little late for the confetti. And it also seemed to us a little bit patriarchal.”
But Kirby and van Vloten have relented: “We’ve ultimately decided that we are going to get married.
“And we’re going to get married on the 50th anniversary of our meeting, which is the 11th of February, 2019.
“And we’ll get married at home. We will never call each other husband. You know, many gay people call each other husband. Our relationship is not like husband and husband.
“Our relationship essentially is one of partner and partner or spouse and spouse.
“We are happy with spouse. We will use that. And then the following night we will go back, on the Tuesday, because we met on a Tuesday, we will go back to what is now the Rex Bistro. The Rex Hotel has been pulled down, it is now a bistro.
“We will go back and ask for a table. Is that weird? No, I think it’s a bit romantic.”
One of Australia’s greatest jurists then returned to the original question and the secret to a happy life.
“If I could revive a moment, I would revive the moment of meeting my partner, because straight or gay, you’ve got to be very lucky to meet a life partner.
“You’ve got to be very lucky to meet someone who will put up with you.
“Especially if you are a lawyer, and particularly if you are a High Court justice, because you are going to be an egomaniac, opinionated type of person.
“I’ve really been very blessed.
My hope for everyone here is they that you’re all wonderfully successful, brilliant and do wonderfully well in your profession.
“But you can get by without that. The most important thing to wish you is that you get health and happiness.”